What’s up with ketchup? The shifting history and spelling of the name of this condiment. For centuries, ketchup was a fishy sauce originating in Asia—the tomatoes came only later! Plus, a new book shows what’s lost when a language dies: when there...
Authors often go through several working titles before settling on one. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (Bookshop|Amazon) was originally Trimalchio in West Egg, Trimalchio being an ostentatious nouveau riche character in an ancient Roman work...
A Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, listener has been pondering the saying It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good, and specifically whether she uses it correctly. The expression usually appears as It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good...
A Charlotte, North Carolina, shares her granddaughter’s adorable misunderstanding of a word. When a breeze was blowing, the little girl would say it’s winding (rhyming more or less with “wending” rather than...
Michael from Jones, Michigan, says he was stationed on a U.S. Army base in Germany in the early 1960s. If there was a gust of cold wind, a fellow soldier would say the hawk’s out. This expression is largely associated with Chicago, Illinois...
A brickfielder is a hot, dry wind in Southern Australia. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “A Blowing Brickfielder” Grant, do you know what a brick fielder is? A center fielder who doesn’t have to move when a pot...